The present invention relates to surgical treatment of female urinary stress incontinence.
In particular, the invention relates to a surgical assembly which, at the end of the procedure or operation, supports the urethra by a suburethral strip both of whose ends are disposed in an appropriate path of the body of the patient, for example to the abdominal wall thereof.
For this purpose, in general, the surgical assembly according to the present invention comprises a suburethral supporting strip and a needle or similar sharp part passed through the skin, said needle engaging and pulling the suburethral supporting strip.
The present invention relates to a surgical assembly as defined hereinabove, with a universal nature in the sense that it can be used whatever the surgical approach and technique selected by the practitioner.
For this purpose, a surgical assembly according to the invention has a combination of the following features:
a) it includes a composite band comprised of at least the suburethral supporting strip and a flat protective sheath, said strip being disposed for example freely inside this sheath;
b) the flat sheath includes, in its lengthwise direction, two parts disposed on either side of a central separation area;
c) at each of its two ends the composite band has a single part, for example a single female part, of a lockable and unlockable connecting means, while the percutaneous needle has at least one other part, for example a male part, of a connecting means, the connecting means of the composite band and each connecting means of the needle enabling the needle to be connected releasably to at least one of the ends of said composite band.
The needle may have connecting means at its proximal and distal ends.
The composite band may have a breakable linking means formed by an adhesive outer sleeve that can be torn off by a shearing force for example, connecting the two inside ends of the two parts of the flat sheath both of which are adjacent to the separating area.
For one of the approaches chosen by the surgeon, for example the high approach, the assembly additionally and possibly has a flat, flexible piece for joining two pieces of the supporting strip, obtained by cutting said strip transversely, said piece including two opposite means for gripping two adjacent ends of the two pieces, respectively.
The needle may be formed of a curved, sharp part of an instrument, able to pass through the bodily tissues of the patient, passing through the foramen of the pelvis until it emerges through the vaginal incision.